This application claims priority to an application entitled xe2x80x9cOPTICAL DEVICE MODULE USING INTEGRAL HEAT TRANSFER MODULExe2x80x9d applied with the Korean Industrial Property Office on Jan. 30, 2001 and assigned Serial No. 2001-4279, the contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a technique of manufacturing an optical device module which requires temperature control. More particularly, the present invention relates to an optical device module having a heat transfer medium for overcoming nonuniform temperature distribution.
2. Description of the Related Art
In manufacturing an optical device, it is required to control temperature for the stability of wavelength. Also, the temperature gradient in the optical device causes optical loss as well as wavelength variation. Thus, temperature should be uniformly distributed across the whole device. Accordingly, in the prior art, designs of a heat source and a heat dispersing plate have been considered important features.
A basic prior art method of controlling temperature of the optical device uses the optical device, the heat source and a heat detecting sensor. The heat source and the heat detecting sensor are contacted with the surface of the optical device, and the sensor reads the surface temperature of the device for feedback control.
However, according to the above-mentioned prior artmethod, temperature distribution of the heat source and temperature fluctuates due to unstable current in the heat source. In order to stabilize the current, a heat transfer plate is installed between the heat source and the device. The transmission of heat flows from the heat source to the device through the heat transfer plate, and the temperature sensor between the heat transfer plate, and the device detects temperature for feedback control.
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view for illustrating such a prior art optical device module, and FIG. 2 is a side structural view of the optical device module shown in FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 2, a typical optical device module is comprised of an optical device 100 which requires temperature control, a temperature sensor 110, a heat source 130, a housing 140 and a mount 141. In addition, although not shown in the drawings, lead wires are provided to apply voltage or current for heating the heat source.
The thermal contact resistance has the greatest difference according to the amount of contact among the heat source 130, the heat transfer plate 120 and the optical device 100. A medium, such as thermal grease, solder and the like, is applied to maintain close contact. In order to obtain the most efficient use of the medium, the contact surfaces should be rubbed for uniform distribution.
However, there are instances when uniform contact still cannot be obtained even with a rubbed contact surfaces containing a medium. In such a case, the temperature is not uniformly dispersed across the whole area of the heat transfer plate 120, so that temperature distribution is frequently nonuniform across the device.
Also, the temperature sensor 110 is generally applied as a thermistor or resistance temperature detector (RTD), in which the temperature sensor 110 is preferably arranged adjacent the optical device 100 for more accurate temperature detection of the optical device 100. Here, the temperature sensor 110 generally has a certain amount of thickness, and thus essentially builds up an insulation layer between the optical device 100 and the heat transfer plate 120 when placed between the optical device 100 and the heat transfer plate 120 as shown in FIG. 2.
As described above, the optical device module of the prior art does not provide complete contact among the parts, thereby causing temperature distribution to be nonuniform and efficiency to be degraded. Accordingly, the wavelength features of the optical device are degraded, the optical device can be damaged, and power consumption is increased.
The present invention has been proposed to solve the foregoing problems of the prior art. The present invention provides an optical device module having excellent workability in which a heat transfer path is simplified by the packaging the optical device module. The present invention permits the optical device to avoid performance degradation due to nonuniform temperature distribution. In addition, in the present invention, power consumption can be reduced over devices in the prior art.
According to an embodiment of the invention,, it is provided that an optical device module using integral heat transfer module comprises a heat transfer module attached to an optical device and having a heat source for heating, and a temperature sensor for sensing temperature. The heat source and the temperature sensor are integrally formed.